Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Shane Claiborne describes an authentic faith rooted in belief, action, and love, inviting us into a movement of the Spirit that begins inside each of us. He lives among the homeless, helps local kids with homework, and tries to resurrect the forgotten places of our world. Shane's message will comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, but will also invite us into an irresistible revolution. His is a vision for ordinary radicals ready to change the world with little acts of love.

Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?

Best-selling authors Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo talk candidly about the life and teaching of Jesus and the wisdom he offers our fractured world. It is time to re-imagine the world and the way we live - the old patterns of politics, economics, and religion that aren’t working. It’s time for a new kind of Christianity. In Red Letter Revolution, best-selling authors Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo take on the hardest issues facing our world.

Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My Faith and Found It Again Through Science

In Finding God in the Waves, "Science Mike" draws on his personal experience to tell the unlikely story of how science led him back to faith. Among other revelations, we learn what brain scans reveal about what happens when we pray; how fundamentalism affects the psyche; and how God is revealed not only in scripture but in the night sky, in subatomic particles, and in us.

The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion

In The Day the Revolution Began, N. T. Wright once again challenges commonly held Christian beliefs, as he did in Surprised by Hope. Demonstrating the rigorous intellect and breathtaking knowledge that have long defined his work, Wright argues that Jesus' death on the cross was not only to absolve us of our sins, it was actually the beginning of a revolution commissioning the Christian faithful to a new vocation - a royal priesthood responsible for restoring and reconciling all of God's creation.

With compelling and often humorous stories from his own life, Bible scholar Peter Enns offers a fresh look at how Christian life truly works, answering questions that cannot be addressed by the idealized traditional doctrine of "once for all delivered to the saints".

The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It

Trained as an evangelical Bible scholar, Peter Enns loved the Scriptures and shared his devotion by teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction nor be accepted among the conservative evangelical community.

How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living

Each of us was created for something great - we just need to figure out what it is and find the courage to do it. Whether it's writing the next great American novel, starting a business, or joining a band, Rob Bell wants to help us make those dreams become reality. Our path is ours and ours alone to pursue, he reminds us, and in doing so we derive great joy because we are living our passions.

How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels

New Testament scholar N. T. Wright reveals how we have been misreading the Gospels for centuries, powerfully restoring the lost central story of the scripture: that the coronation of God through the acts of Jesus was the climax of human history. Wright fills the gaps that centuries of misdirection have opened up in our collective spiritual story, tracing a narrative from Eden to Jesus to today.

Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church

Arguing from Scripture and history, Dr. Boyd makes a compelling case that whenever the church gets too close to any political or national ideology, it is disastrous for the church and harmful to society. Dr. Boyd contends that the American Evangelical Church has allowed itself to be co-opted by the political right (and some by the political left), and exposes how this is harming the church's unique calling to build the kingdom of God.

Unashamed

Two-time Grammy-winning rap artist, Lecrae, learned this lesson through more than his share of adversity - childhood abuse, drugs and alcoholism, a stint in rehab, an abortion, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Along the way, Lecrae attained an unwavering faith in Jesus and began looking to God for affirmation. Now as a chart-topping industry anomaly, he has learned to ignore the haters and make peace with his craft.

Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

In Accidental Saints, New York Times best-selling au­thor Nadia Bolz-Weber invites readers into a surprising encounter with what she calls "a religious but not-so-spiritual life." Tattooed, angry and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people - a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop and a gun-toting member of the NRA.

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals - church culture seemed so far removed from Jesus. Yet despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing her back. And so she set out on a journey to understand the Church and to find her place in it.

Ragamuffin Gospel

Many believers feel stunted in their Christian growth. We beat ourselves up over our failures and, in the process, pull away from God because we subconsciously believe He tallies our defects and hangs His head in disappointment. In this new edition - now with a foreword by Michael W. Smith, testimony by Rich Mullins and the author's own epilogue, "Ragamuffin Ten Years Later," Brennan Manning reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth.

Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

Are you one of the millions who crave a new direction in the church, fed up with religious games, empty promises, and cultural Christianity? You are not alone. You are not crazy. Maybe Jesus is ready to interrupt your life. Snatching Jen Hatmaker from the grip of her consumer life, God began asking her questions like, "What is really the point of My Church? What have I really asked of you?" Transparent and imperfect, Jen will engage and inspire you to go beyond comfortable and answer for yourself the question she faced.

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible

Drawing on their own cross cultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time, and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways. Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.

The Pastor: A Memoir

“If anyone knows how to be a pastor in the contemporary context that person is Eugene Peterson. Eugene possesses the rare combination of a pastor’s heart and a pastor’s art. Take and read!” (Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline) “I’ve been nagging Eugene Peterson for years to write a memoir. In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness.” (Philip Yancey, author of What Good is God)

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived

Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this "good news"? Author, pastor, and innovative teacher Rob Bell presents a deeply biblical vision for rediscovering a richer, grander, truer, and more spiritually satisfying way of understanding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, salvation, and repentance.

Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy

From the author of Blue Like Jazz comes a book about the risk involved in choosing to impress fewer people and connect with more, about the freedom that comes when we stop acting and start loving. It is a story about knocking down old walls to create a healthy mind, a strong family, and a satisfying career. And it all feels like a conversation with the best kind of friend: smart, funny, true, important. Scary Close is Donald Miller at his best.

The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction

Whether listeners are devout believers or distant seekers, The Idolatry of God shows that we must lay down our certainties and honestly admit our doubts to identify with Jesus. Rollins purposely upsets fundamentalist certainty in order to open listeners up to a more loving, active manifestation of Christ’s love. In contrast to the usual understanding of the "Good News" as a message offering satisfaction and certainty, Rollins argues for a radical and shattering alternative. He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can’t be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark.

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint

Nadia Bolz-Weber takes no prisoners as she reclaims the term "pastrix"(pronounced "pas-triks," a term used by some Christians who refuse to recognize female pastors) in her messy, beautiful, prayer-and-profanity laden narrative about an unconventional life of faith. Heavily tattooed and loud-mouthed, Nadia, a former stand-up comic, sure as hell didn't consider herself to be religious leader material-until the day she ended up leading a friend's funeral in a smoky downtown comedy club. Surrounded by fellow alcoholics, depressives, and cynics, she realized: These were her people. Maybe she was meant to be their pastor.

Common Prayer helps today's diverse church pray together across traditions and denominations. With an ear to the particulars of how various liturgical traditions pray, and using an advisory team of liturgy experts, the authors have created a tapestry of prayer that celebrates the best of each tradition.

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity

Do you want to make a true difference in the world? Dr. Ron Sider does. He has, since before he first published Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger in 1978. Despite a dramatic reduction in world hunger since then, 34,000 children still die daily of starvation and preventable disease, and 1.3 billion people, worldwide, remain in abject poverty.

Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture

People are hungry to make a difference in their community, yet most don't know where to start. In fact, "serving the least" is often one of the most neglected biblical mandates in the church. Barefoot Church explains how today's church can be a catalyst for individual, collective, and social renewal in any context. Whether pastors or laypeople, listeners will discover practical ideas that end up being as much about the Gospel and personal transformation as they are about serving the poor.

Publisher's Summary

As a follow-up to his best seller The Irresistible Revolution, Claiborne issues a radical manifesto on Christian political imagination - that our hope lies not in partisan options but in Jesus and the incarnation of the church as "set apart" from this world. A thoughtful and lyrical examination of the relationship between faith and allegiance for modern-day saints.

Jesus for President is certainly challenging. Not so much on an intellectual level as a social / philosophical level. The point of the book is to elicit a political response in Christians, and the book certainly accomplishes this goal. I would say their point is to elicit somewhat of an anti-political stance, one of provocation against human government.

This book certainly caused me to reflect on my current beliefs, and to consider new thoughts I have not yet had. I would take issue with the authors treatment of many texts of Scripture, however, and do not agree with many of their conclusions. To their credit, I believe that they practice what they preach (according to their own testimony), and I applaud their pursuit to be pleasing to God, but wonder how much of their passion is truly tied to Scripture and how much is tied to their political passion.

If you want a challenge to your political views, regardless of what side you take, it's a worthy read. The audio version could do well without the songs interspersed between chapters however... it detracts from the book.

This book is amazing as it re-contextualizes the Bible with an eye toward social justice and reform. The "musical" interludes however, are highly irritating and detract greatly from the power of this book. I don't know why thought they were a good idea - but they are unbearable.

This is not for the faint of heart. The words of this book are challenging. Whether or not you agree with the theology it will produce much food for thought, prayer and soul searching in your relationship with God.

It rises above my expectations. One of the most poignant moments is the story of Maximillian, who steps in to sacrifice his life for another soldier who is being executed to save the pleading man's life, a move approved by the Nazis conducting the execution. Another moving narrative is that of Bonhoffer, who prayed for God's forgiveness even while he tried to suppress his human plans, however sinful, to murder Hitler.

Overall, the book makes the case that someone like Jesus would make a poor presidential candidate, since Jesus preferred to live humbly, to live among the disenfranchised and forgotten members of society, and to turn the other cheek to his enemies.